I’m so excited to have Carley on the blog today! She was super sweet to take the time to answer allllll my questions—check it out below 👇
Hi Carley! I, along with all the other book lovers out there, loved loved loved Every Summer After. It’s literally the perfect summer read 😍. How did this book come to fruition?
Thank you so much! I grew up on a lake in Barry’s Bay, where the book is set. My parents sold our house about a decade ago, but my husband and I still rent a cottage in the area every summer. I was there for all of July and August in 2020 and feeling so nostalgic for the summers of my childhood. That might have been because I’d read my teenage journals a couple months earlier in one of the early lockdown weekends. The pandemic had me feeling pretty raw — I was thinking a lot about the people who come and go from our lives. One day, I got off a very stressful work call and decided at that moment to write a novel — it had been something I’d always wanted to do. I knew I wanted to set the book at the lake, and I knew I wanted to tackle young love from an adult perspective. I started Every Summer After a day or two later.
Tell us about growing up in Barry’s Bay!
I was born in Toronto, and our family cottage was on Kamaniskeg Lake in Barry’s Bay. When I was three, we moved to Australia. When I was eight, we moved back. But instead of settling in Toronto, my parents decided to make our cottage a home. I lived in Barry’s Bay from fourth grade until the end of high school. So like Sam in Every Summer After, I was a year-round resident on the lake. We lived down a bumpy dirt road in the bush, and cottagers would come and go throughout the year. My family had an inn and restaurant in town, so when I was a teen, I worked there. Every Summer After is very much an ode to the summers of my youth. Friendship bracelets. Reading on the dock. Spending all day in a bathing suit. There’s a jumping rock on Kamaniskeg and my cousins had an old yellow boat, just like the Floreks do in the book.
Is there a character in Every Summer After that is most like you?
There’s a bit of me in both Percy and Sam, but I think I’m more of a Sam. It’s not just that we had similar childhoods, but I’m very goal-oriented and tend to pursue them relentlessly. When I was a teenager, I also dreamed of having a big life away from my small town, but I’ve come to appreciate Barry’s Bay a lot more as an adult.
How would you describe your feelings once your debut hit the market?
Overwhelmed in the best way! When I started writing the book, it was a project for myself. I always dreamed about writing a novel, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. It was a very private, personal process, and I told very few people I was writing. To have the book be out in the world is surreal. To have it be so widely read is flabbergasting. There’s been so much hype surrounding Every Summer After that I kind of want to tell people, Lower your expectations, please!!! But I’m so grateful and humbled by how readers have responded — and how they’ve encouraged friends and family to give it a chance.
Are you still involved in journalism or strictly writing novels now?
I left my job as Executive Editor of Refinery29 Canada last fall to pursue fiction full-time. I was a magazine and newspaper editor for 16 years, and I worked so hard to build a successful career in media. I love so much about journalism, and I adore journalists, but I hadn’t been happy for several years. Writing Every Summer After was such a revelation — it felt like what I was meant to be doing with my life. I hope I can continue to write forever.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
We have two young children, so between work and family, there’s in a whole lot of free time. I try to run as often as I can — running has become a part of my writing process and is the best way for me to manage anxiety and stress. I read, of course, and my husband and I try to have some kind of date night every week, which is often having a nice meal together at home. We love food.
Where is your favorite place to write? Do you need silence/background noise?
I feel most creative at the lake, but I don’t get to work there very much. I used to think I needed silence to work, but I’ve learned over the past two years that I can write in almost any situation. I’ve written on the dock with friends chatting around me. I’ve written in the living room while my son watches TV. I’ve worked in coffee shops. I gave birth to my second child in April of last year, and my husband and the baby have been home with me while I’ve been working on my second novel. I never used to write with music, but now I put on noise canceling headphones and music in order to work through the boys’ racket.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Oh gosh. So many. In adult fiction, there’s Elin Hilderbrand, Tia Williams, Christina Lauren, Colleen Hoover, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Emily Henry, Talia Hibbert, and Beth O’Leary. In young adult, Nicola Yoon, Jennifer Niven, Cath Crowley, Jenny Han, and Tahereh Mafi. I’m sure I’m missing plenty more!
Do you have any family traditions you look forward to every year?
Going to the cottage. My oldest son is almost six. That first time he runs down the dock and leaps into the water fills my heart completely. We also have an annual visit with my best friend and her family at their cottage. Drinking wine with my bestie at the lake while the kids play is heaven.
How would you describe your personality?
Gah! That is a difficult task. I was once asked to describe my writing in three words, and I went with: emotional, nostalgic, and sparkling. Maybe I’m a bit like that too. I’m also very determined and a total extrovert.
Tell us more about your husband’s nonna’s homemade lasagna!
HA! I’m not lying when I say I was first interested in my husband because I overheard him talking about his nonna’s cooking. Nonna Angela’s lasagna is life-alteringly good. She makes the most incredible thin lasagna noodles (everything is from scratch, of course) and the perfect sugo (a red sauce with ground pork and maybe veal). She layers it with mozzarella and parmigiano cheese. So it’s sauce, noodle, cheese, sauce, noodle cheese. It’s sounds heavy, but the noodles are thin and she has a light touch with the sauce and cheese, and it’s just layer upon layer — I think I once counted eleven. I’ve helped her make it a couple of times, but she’s a secretive lady. Whenever you cook with her, she always has done something ahead of time — like get the pasta dough ready before we roll it out — so you’re never quite sure how her pasta is so wonderful or her sauce so perfect.
What is something your readers may not know about you?
I went to sleepaway summer camp once for a week. I think it was the summer before fifth or sixth grade. I was having a hard time in school then — I struggled with friends when we moved to back to Canada. But I was immediately embraced by this group of camp girls, many of whom knew each other from previous summers. We spent the week riding horses and swimming in the river. They called me Bubbles because of my bubbly personality — I think I must have been over the moon to have friends. It was one of the best weeks of my childhood.
Favorites:
Drink? Coffee
Dessert? Cheese and crackers
Movie? 13 Going on 30
Scent? None
Fashion style? I work at home, so I’m usually in sweats or my running clothes, but I make an effort when I go out. I love clothes, and I’m a bit of magpie. I don’t think I could define my style. I try to wear Canadian as much as possible.
Vacation spot? The lake, though you know that by now.
Book? Seven Days in June by Tia Williams.
Person? People! I’m lucky to have lots.
Color? Purple.
Finally, I hear that you’re currently writing your second book! I couldn’t be more excited about this 🤩🤩🤩. Is there info you can give us on this—or is it all tight-lipped?
I have info! Meet Me at the Lake comes out on May 2, 2023. It’s a love story that I’m so, so proud of. It’s about Fern Brookbanks, who’s had to return home to run her mother’s lakeside resort. (The absolute last thing she’s ever wanted to do.) The business is struggling and her ex-boyfriend is the manager, and then in walks Will Baxter with an offer to help. Fern spent twenty-four magical hours with Will in her early twenties after a chance encounter in the city turned into a daylong adventure. They shared all their secrets and made a promise to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.
Will might be the only person who understands what Fern is going through — and the lifeline she needs. But Fern isn’t sure she can trust him, especially because she can tell he’s hiding something.
Like Every Summer After, the book is told in alternating timelines. In the past, you spend the day in Toronto with Fern and Will. And in the present, you’re at Brookbanks Resort for the summer, so it’s a little bit Before Sunrise and a little bit Dirty Dancing, with an element of mystery and a ton of big feelings.
Thank you so much for your time Carley! I love your story about summer camp 😍. This whole interview kind of makes me want to go to Barry’s Bay, eat some homemade lasagna, and curl up to watch 13 Going on 30—I completely forgot about that movie!
I know I can speak for most of us when I say we are anxiously awaiting release day for Meet Me at the Lake! 📖
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